NYU Langone Health in the NewsThursday, November 9, 2023 – NYU Langone Health

Media Highlights from Worlds First Whole Eye and Partial Face Transplant

Man Receives the First Eye Transplant Plus a New Face. Its a Step Toward One Day Restoring Sight This story was picked up by more than 200 local news outlets across the country. AP News November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology -Steven L. Galetta, MD, the Philip K. Moskowitz, MD Professor and Chair of Neurology, Department of Neurology, professor, Department of Ophthalmology

Man Who Narrowly Survived Electrical Accident Receives Worlds First Eye Transplant This story was picked syndicated across CBS News affiliates across the country. CBS News November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology

In a First, a Man Received a Whole Eye Transplant After Surviving High-Voltage Electric Shock NBC News November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Worlds First Whole-Eye and Partial Face Transplant Gives Arkansas Man New Hope CNN Health November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

NYU Langone Health Surgeon, Patient Show Off First-Ever Eye and Partial Face Transplant ABC7 November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

First Face-and-Eye Combo Transplant Makes History New York Post November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Samer Al-Homsi, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center -Bruce E. Gelb, MD, associate professor, vice chair of quality, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery

New York Surgeons Reveal Worlds First Eye Transplant (Subscription required.) The Wall Street Journal November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology

Surgeons in New York Announce Worlds First Eye Transplant Reuters November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

A High-Voltage Wire Destroyed His Face. Doctors Just Gave Him a New One. USA Today November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Bruce E. Gelb, MD, associate professor, vice chair of quality, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery

The Worlds First Whole-Eye Transplant Is Helping an Arkansas Man Recover from Catastrophic Injury TIME November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Aaron James Lost Half His Face from Electrocution. He Just Received the First-Ever Eye and Face Transplant People November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Man Maimed by Electric Shock Receives First-Ever Face Transplant That Includes New Eye HealthDay November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Samer Al-Homsi, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center -Bruce E. Gelb, MD, associate professor, vice chair of quality, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery

Human Eyeball Successfully Transplanted for the First Time New Scientist November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Doctors Complete First Successful Face and Whole-Eye Transplant Scientific American November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology

U.S. Surgeons Perform Worlds First Whole Eye Transplant Yahoo! News November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Arkansas Man Receives Worlds First Whole-Eye, Partial Face Transplant (Subscription required.) Forbes November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Bruce E. Gelb, MD, associate professor, vice chair of quality, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery

A Man Who Lost Half of His Face in a Work Accident Has Received the Worlds First Whole-Eye Transplant. He May Even See Out of It One Day. Insider November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

NYU Langone Health Performs the Worlds First Whole-Eye and Partial-Face Transplant for Military Veteran News Medical & Life Sciences November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology -Samer Al-Homsi, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center -Bruce E. Gelb, MD, associate professor, vice chair of quality, Department of Surgery, Division of Transplant Surgery -Steven L. Galetta, MD, the Philip K. Moskowitz, MD Professor and Chair of Neurology, Department of Neurology, professor, Department of Ophthalmology

Surgeons Perform First-Ever Whole Eye and Partial Facial Transplant Inverse November 9 -Vaidehi S. Dedania, MD, associate professor, Department of Ophthalmology -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Doctors Successfully Performed the First Human Eyeball Transplant BroBible November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

This Man Received the First-Ever Whole-Eye Transplant Daily Beast November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Man Burned from the Inside Out in 7,200-Volt Electrocution Gets Worlds First Eye Transplant The Sun November 9 -Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, DDS, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, chair, the Hansjrg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery

Man Who Had Entire Face Electrocuted Off at Work Looks Unrecognizable After Transplant Daily Star November 9 -NYU Langone Health

Half-Synthetic Yeast Engineered for the First Time Technology Networks November 8 -Jef D. Boeke, PhD, the Sol and Judith Bergstein Director, Institute of System Genetics, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Fully Synthetic Genome Nears Completion in a Step Toward Unraveling Genetic Mysteries *Subscription required, please see full text at end of report. Endpoints News November 9 -Jef D. Boeke, PhD, the Sol and Judith Bergstein Director, Institute of System Genetics, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

NYU Langone Marks $2B in Donor Support Beckers Hospital Review November 8 -Robert I. Grossman, MD, dean and CEO, NYU Langone Health

Healthy Tissue May Predict Lung Cancer Return Better Than Tumors LiveScience November 8 -Aristotelis Tsirigos, PhD, professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Department of Pathology, Perlmutter Cancer Center

Male Patients, Black Patients, Rural Residents More Likely to Die of Pulmonary Embolism Healio November 8 -Shari B. Brosnahan, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

The Most Common COVID Symptoms Doctors Are Seeing in Fall 2023 HuffPost November 9 -Sarah E. Hochman, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, section chief, Infectious Diseases, Tisch Hospital

What Can You Expect from a Stem Cell Transplant for PNH? HealthCentral November 8 -Mohammad Maher Abdul Hay, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Perlmutter Cancer Center

Study Finds Higher B-Cell Levels in African American Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Managed Healthcare Executive November 8 -Haotian Xue, MD, resident physician, Department of Neurology, Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center

Two Biomarkers Promising for Preeclampsia Prediction Medscape November 8 -Nieca Goldberg, MD, clinical associate professor, Department of Medicine, the Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology

Why Everything About Weight Loss Changes After 35 Mens Health November 8 -Holly F. Lofton, MD, clinical associate professor, Departments of Surgery, Division of Bariatric Surgery, and Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine

COVID Lockdowns Increased ADHD Risk Among 10-Year-Old Children Fox News November 9 -Marc K. Siegel, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine

Getting COVID and Flu Shots Together May Slightly Increase Risk of Stroke in Older Adults Health November 8 -Brandon Giglio, MD, clinical assistant professor, Department of Neurology, NYU Langone HospitalBrooklyn

* Endpoints News - November 9, 2023 - Fully Synthetic Genome Nears Completion in a Step Toward Unraveling Genetic Mysteries - An international effort to create yeast cells with a fully synthetic genome is nearing completion, with the eventual aim of unraveling the mysteries of genomes and ushering in a tool for producing complex medicines.

Scientists hope to create the synthetic organism by stitching together small pieces of DNA into artificial chromosomes and trimming out some genetic fat in the process.

The Synthetic Yeast Genome Project abbreviated Sc2.0 dates back more than 15 years. Now, in the consortiums biggest update since revealing five synthetic chromosomes in 2017, its scientists published 10 papers describing the creation of most of the remaining chromosomes, along with a wholly new one that does not exist in nature.

Weve got all 16 chromosomes completely synthesized, Jef Boeke, a synthetic biologist at NYU Langone Health and leader of the project, told Endpoints News. The group is still working on bringing those chromosomes, each in different yeast strains, together into a single organism. Were about a year or two away from completing that whole thing, Boeke said.

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute, led by the eponymous geneticist who rose to fame as a leader of the Human Genome Project, have previously built viruses and bacteria from synthetic DNA. But the Sc2.0 yeast would be the most complex synthetic organism yet. And since yeast is more closely related to animals than bacteria, its a better stepping stone for answering questions about how human genomes work.

This is a gargantuan task, J. Craig Venter, whose institute was not involved in Sc2.0, said in an interview. Having a completely synthetic yeast would be a major milestone. I cant say how impressed I am with what theyve managed to pull off, he said.

Making a synthetic genome is not as simple as creating a carbon copy of what nature has already produced. The project is partly motivated by the belief that scientists can improve upon what nature has created.

These synthetic yeast cells allow us to think about how the genome could have been organized, Patrick Cai, a synthetic biologist at the University of Manchester, said in an email. Our understanding of genomes is largely based on the observation of these natural genomes. The ability to build synthetic genomes will lead us to a much deeper understanding of the first principles of life.

So far, the scientists have brought seven and a half synthetic chromosomes together under one Bakers yeast cell, accounting for 54% of the organisms DNA. That process of consolidation has proven trickier than expected, but scientists are already envisioning future uses for the completed cell.

Bakers yeast has always been the worlds number one microbe for making things for humans, said Tom Ellis, a synthetic biologist at Imperial College London whose lab constructed one of the yeast chromosomes. And with a finished synthetic cell, it opens up the possibility of making those products biochemicals, drugs, antibodies, vaccines, biomaterials in more optimal ways and with more diverse chemistry too.

Dreams of writing genomes, rather than just reading them, took hold at the turn of the century soon after scientists finished sequencing the first human genome. Researchers at Venters institute booted up the first bacteria with a synthetic genome in 2010 and refined and minimized its code in subsequent years.

For Boeke, creating a synthetic yeast genome was the natural next step. Yet, as simple as a yeast cell is compared to a human, its genome is still much larger than that of bacteria. It took about eight years before the first synthetic yeast chromosome was finished in 2014. In the years since, with the help of labs around the world and armies of undergrads, the Sc2.0 consortium has finally finished constructing the chromosomes.

One of the surprises that the group faced was that while the yeast was often healthy with one synthetic chromosome, the cells sometimes got sick when multiple synthetic chromosomes were added, sending the scientists back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong and debug the design.

It indicates that there are more mysteries within the genomic sequences than we thought, said Junbiao Dai, deputy director of the Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, whose lab made one of the chromosomes. Debugging is a really big time-consuming process.

The Sc2.0 project shows that you have to build it to understand it, Venter said. Every time we or somebody else tries to make something, we find out that there are huge gaps in our knowledge.

The synthetic yeast genome has thousands of changes, reducing its length by about 10% compared to a natural genome, Boeke said. Some of those changes include stripping out repetitive DNA sequences that the scientists believe have accumulated over time and are unnecessary. So far, removing ones called transposons hasnt had a negative elect on the cells.

The team also did some reorganizing. Hundreds of genes encoding tRNA molecules which are crucial for protein production are normally scattered across the yeasts chromosomes. Cais lab took those genes and put them all together on a synthetic tRNA neochromosome.

Repetitive regions and tRNA genes are both hotspots for genetic mishaps that damage DNA. While clumping the tRNA genes together could really create a nightmare, some additional tinkering to reduce their liabilities seems to have worked, Boeke said. Were seeing if we can build a more stable genome than the natural genome.

They also installed tidbits of DNA throughout the genome that they can use to easily add, remove, or rearrange genes. That technique, called Scramble, allows scientists to rapidly generate thousands to millions of genetic variants of yeast. Boeke compares the approach to shuffling a massive deck of cards, each representing a gene, over and over.

One of those hands is going to give you a royal flush, the best possible hand in poker. And another ones going to give you the best hand in gin rummy, Boeke said, with different winning hands for researchers making antibodies, biofuels, or vaccine antigens. Its going to be a very practical tool for biotech companies that are trying to optimize yeast to produce useful products.

Its such a cool project, and coordinating all these institutions and investigators is a herculean task, said Jay Keasling, a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the e!ort. Its a stepping stone to what comes next, and just like DNA sequencing got cheaper and cheaper, doing this will get easier and easier.

Scientists are already envisioning a new project, Sc3.0, to dramatically shrink the size of the yeast genome, only retaining genes that are absolutely vital to life.

Imagine stripping back your smartphone to the most basic functions and having everything else as an optional app its battery life would probably be a lot better. Wed like to try to do that for cells, Ellis said.

Shen Yue, chief scientist of synthetic biology at BGI-Research in China, is excited to expand the genetic code of the synthetic yeast, allowing the cells to incorporate new amino acids beyond the standard twenty building blocks used to make peptides and proteins. Those new amino acids could grant new footholds for making antibody- drug conjugates, she said, or creating protein therapies with improved properties, like less frequent dosing.

Sc2.0 was once viewed as a stepping stone towards creating a fully synthetic human genome. Boeke was previously among the leaders of a grassroots effort called Human Genome Project-Write, announced in 2016. Yet, without concerted funding, the goal of synthesizing a human genome remains far off.

The human genome is 200 times larger, not to mention a lot more complicated and difficult to work with, Boeke said. Its just not practical.

Boeke said he withdrew from the group during the pandemic because his lab was busy helping with Covid-19 testing for New York City. But he also thinks that the time it would take to synthesize a full human genome poses a challenge. The cost of synthesizing DNA is another barrier.

Im surprised that the cost of the raw starting materials hasnt come down more, said Joel Bader, professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University who was part of Sc2.0.

Several biotech companies are working on new methods for making DNA in the lab cheaper and faster. Its too soon to say if they will succeed, but the value of making fully synthetic genomes could soon be put to the test when the synthetic yeast is complete.

When all of those chromosomes are consolidated, thats when the power of Sc2.0 is really going to take off, Boeke said.

I have a bet on a case of very good wine with a colleague who thinks we wont be able to do it, he said. But Im pretty confident Im going to be drinking some good wine.

Originally posted here:
NYU Langone Health in the NewsThursday, November 9, 2023 - NYU Langone Health